Verstappen stuns McLaren after heavy Norris crash in Saudi qualifying

Max Verstappen denied Oscar Piastri pole position for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in a qualifying session interrupted by a heavy crash for Formula 1 world championship leader Lando Norris.

Norris lost control of his McLaren over a kerb in the high-speed first sector of the lap during his first flying lap of Q3 and slewed into the opposite barrier, doing heavy damage to the left-hand side of his car.

Norris immediately informed McLaren over team radio that he was "OK", before lambasting himself as a "f**king idiot" having consigned himself to 10th on the grid.

Coming a week after his disappointing Bahrain GP performance and McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri's Sakhir victory, the crash was another blow for Norris's title bid.

But Piastri - who is now three points off Norris in the championship - couldn't quite capitalise on his team-mate's error as he was thwarted by another sensational Verstappen performance.

Piastri was the only driver who managed to complete a Q3 flying lap before Norris's crash.

When the session resumed, Red Bull uniquely sent Verstappen out with fuel for two flying laps separated by a pitstop for fresh tyres.

At the first attempt Verstappen pipped Piastri's benchmark by just 0.001s, before George Russell usurped them both for Mercedes.

Piastri then reclaimed provisional pole with a 1m27.304s lap, only for Verstappen to deny him by just 0.010s with his own final lap and claim a second pole in the last three races.

Russell completed the top three ahead of Charles Leclerc's Ferrari and Kimi Antonelli's Mercedes.

Lewis Hamilton was only three places behind Ferrari team-mate Leclerc in seventh but six tenths of a second separated them. Hamilton had been within 0.007s of not making Q3 and only jumped from 15th to ninth at the very end of Q1.

Carlos Sainz continued his improved form to put his Williams sixth on the grid, while team-mate Alex Albon narrowly missed Q3.

Verstappen's Red Bull team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was eighth, while Alpine lost Jack Doohan in Q1 but reached Q3 with Pierre Gasly in ninth.

Neither Aston Martin was in Q3 contention, Fernando Alonso 13th on the grid and Lance Stroll out in Q1.

Liam Lawson outqualified Isack Hadjar for the first time since they became Racing Bulls team-mates - they sandwiched Alonso in 12th and 14th.

There was a six-tenth gap between the Haas cars in Q1 as Ollie Bearman went 11th quickest and Esteban Ocon ended up on the back row ahead of only the spinning Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto. But Bearman couldn't do any better than 15th in Q2.

Provisional Saudi Arabian GP grid

1 Max Verstappen
2 Oscar Piastri
3 George Russell
4 Charles Leclerc
5 Kimi Antonelli
6 Carlos Sainz
7 Lewis Hamilton
8 Yuki Tsunoda
9 Pierre Gasly
10 Lando Norris
11 Alex Albon
12 Liam Lawson
13 Fernando Alonso
14 Isack Hadjar
15 Ollie Bearman
16 Lance Stroll
17 Jack Doohan
18 Nico Hulkenberg
19 Esteban Ocon
20 Gabriel Bortoleto